SEC waits on football, delays start of three fall sports

COLUMBIA - The Southeastern Conference's 14 athletic directors and commissioner Greg Sankey met Monday to discuss plans for the fall, including the moves of the Big Ten and Pac-12 to eliminate non-conference games in all sports, most notably football.

The meeting occurred in person, at the conference's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters, in a large conference room permitting social distancing. It was the first in-person meeting since the SEC men's basketball tournament in Nashville in mid-March, which played first-round games the evening of March 11, without fans before canceling the remainder of the event the next morning, including Missouri's game against Texas A&M.

Though no plans were immediately released, Sankey stressed the need for better public health figures regarding the coronavirus to emerge for there to be an NCAA fall sports season.

"It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis," Sankey said in a statement. "In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us."

His comments echoed those of Jim Sterk in his meeting with media via Zoom last week. A few minutes after the Big Ten eliminated its non-conference games for all fall sports, Sterk voiced his opinion the SEC would be comfortable waiting to make a similar decision until the end of this month.

The SEC followed with a release Tuesday confirming it had delayed the start of all competition until at least Aug. 31 for volleyball, cross country and soccer, a move designed to "provide additional time to prepare for the safe return of competition on an adjusted timeline."

Missouri did not release schedules for those sports, so it is unclear which games or meets, if any, were delayed. In 2019, the volleyball team had its Black & Gold match Aug. 16, and played matches against Kansas State and Miami (Fla.) before Aug. 31. The soccer team played exhibitions at Stanford (Aug. 11) and Colorado State (Aug. 14) and three games against Southern Miss, Ohio State and Cincinnati before Aug. 31 a year ago, and the cross country team held a home meet Aug. 30 in 2019.